Brides and Weight Loss

What girl doesn’t want to look good on her wedding day? It’s not just any day right? It’s the day. And no, walking down that aisle looking less than perfect is just not acceptable.

That’s how a lot of women feel about getting married. They would go to any lengths for their day to be perfect. They stress about the tiniest details, from the china, to the table center piece to the floral arrangement. However, the fuss about wedding details is nothing compared to how brides stress about their looks; make-up, hair, nail polish, shoes and weight.

Newsweek reports that an average American Wedding costs about $30,000. it appears that a considerable portion of this hefty sum goes into weight loss endeavors.

In recent study by Appetite, it is has been found that 70% of engaged women try to lose more than 20 pounds for their wedding day. Though most of these women resort to healthy ways to lose weight, about 20% of them resort to extreme methods. Examples:

starvation and fasting

liquid diets

laxative abuse

vomiting after meals

Some women even tried smoking to lose weight. Then there are those women who resort to this method – which is good in theory, but often has disastrous results: ordering their wedding gown a few sizes too small. They believe it will inspire them to be the right size on their wedding day.

The pressure to be perfect – and thin

In the Newsweek article "The Incredible Shrinking Bride", a woman who was about to get married admits he was pressured into looking "prefect" by all the questions about what she’ll look like on her wedding day. She was bombarded with questions like: ‘What are you going to do with your short hair?’ ‘Do you have a dress?’ ‘What will your makeup be like?’.

Instead of being asked about her plans for her marriage or other details of her engagement. Thus, this bride to be found herself giving an awful lot of attention to her looks, having hair treatments and facial treatments – on a regular (read: monthly) basis. She even resurrected her high-school retainers so her teeth will have their post-braces alignment. On top of all that, she plans to lose 12 pounds off her weight. And she is not even fat, she’s got a Body Mass Index of 20-the lower end of the normal weight range.

The media might have something to do with this trend. Have you seen shows like "Bridezillas," "Platinum Weddings", "Rich Bride, Poor Bride," "Buff Brides," "Bulging Brides" and "My Big Fat Fabulous Wedding"? They kind of take the magic from the special day, don’t they?

This bride-to-be says the standard for brides-to-be today is to have "red carpet-worthy looks". This standard leads to the "unrealistic expectations and unnecessary stress for brides-to-be, and sometimes, to unhealthy behavior as well".

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on Friday, July 4th, 2008 at 12:00 am and is filed under Losing Weight.
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